New technique gets rapid aid to woman in crash

A young woman is in hospital after a car crash in Wairarapa split her car two.

Firefighters were called to the scene, near Clareville north of Carterton, at 9am yesterday, where the woman's car had crashed into a power pole in wet conditions.

Masterton fire station officer Doug Flowerday said the car had to be dragged clear of the pole before they could attend to the driver.

"The whole front of the car had been ripped away on impact of the crash," he said.

Crews used a newly introduced technique developed in Norway, "time-critical extraction".

Instead of using conventional jaws of life and hydraulics to push the shattered chassis away from the patient, they used chains attached to a fire engine to pull them, getting her out and enabling medical treatment to take place within 10 minutes.

Advertisement

An ambulance spokesman said the woman, aged between 18 and 20, had been flown to Wellington Hospital by Westpac rescue helicopter with extensive injuries.

A hospital spokesman said she was in a serious condition in the intensive care unit last night.

The crash was one of several around the country at the weekend:

A crash on State Highway 58 in Wellington about 9am yesterday closed the Paremata Haywards Rd for 45 minutes. A car had rolled. The driver escaped with minor injuries.

A person who has yet to be named died after the car they were driving hit a tree and burst into flames near Whakatane around 6am yesterday.

A 62-year-old Wellington woman was flown to Rotorua hospital with serious injuries following a car crash on SH1 at Oraunui, north of Taupo, about 9.30am on Saturday.

A motorcyclist was killed in a collision with a car travelling the opposite direction on SH1 in the Taupiri area, north of Hamilton around 10pm on Saturday.

A 49-year-old woman was flown to hospital with neck injuries from Whakaki, near Wairoa, after the SUV she was travelling in rolled into a ditch yesterday.

A man in his 60s was taken to hospital in Taupo following a crash on the Napier-Taupo Road around midday yesterday.